The amount of trash is an ever-growing problem. This is especially true in the retail and commercial sectors, where a large amount of refuse is discarded daily. Most businesses have trash bins adjacent to their buildings for dumping the totality of trash collected either daily or throughout the day. The rate at which the garbage piles up in these trash receptacles varies according to factors such as the season, the industry, the location, etc. Consequently, different businesses and different locations of a business may require different pick-up times for their trash bins.
To minimize the cost of hiring commercial trash collection services to pick-up the trash from the trash receptacles, some companies may designate standard pick-up times, such as daily or weekly, even though the trash bins may not be full. Other companies may call commercial trash collection services only when their trash bins are full. Either way, the company usually must use the telephone to call the commercial trash collection service.
The detection of the level of trash in trash receptacles is known in the art. Such detection usually entails some device or method used within the receptacle that senses the level of trash. For instance, a photoelectric cell has been employed for this purpose, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,765,147 to Ippolito. Another variation measures the pressure exerted on the trash compactor to detect when the receptacle is full, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,773,027 to Neumann. Still, U.S. Pat. No. 3,636,863 to Woyden teaches using pressure-sensing means to determine when the trash container is full.
Additionally, it is known in the art to utilize a means for relaying the information regarding the fullness of the trash receptacle to another location, where the information can be processed. Usually, this relaying method encompasses a telephone or cellular phone line. Some of these devices include U.S. Pat. No. 5,558,013 to Blackstone, Jr.; U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,299,493 and 5,303,642 to Durbin et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,214,594 to Tyler et al.; and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,173,866 and 5,016,197 to Neumann et al.
Continuing with the prior art, there are many other private and commercial applications for transferring electronic data from one location to another that are impractical when the transmission involves the use of conventional telephone modems, permanent data connections, or Internet access. These applications would benefit from data transfer capability but the ongoing cost associated with a traditional Internet connection or a long distance toll phone call makes the feature uncompetitive from a financial standpoint.
There are several common techniques that are presently used to effect data transfer.
On common technique is that a computer or other electronic device equipped with a modem places a call to a second computer, also equipped with a modem. The second computer's modem detects the incoming call, answers, and the two modems facilitate maintaining a connection through the phone system that allows data transfer. This connection remains until one of the two computers terminates the call. The disadvantage of this method is that for the duration of the connection the user is charged for either local units of connect time, long distance toll charges, or both.
Another common technique is that a computer or other electronic device may be permanently connected to the Internet via dedicated modem, DSL (Digital Subscriber Line), or other types of permanent connections leased through the telco or an Internet Service Provider (ISP.) When one computer transfers data to another a transport protocol such as TCP/IP in conjunction with other Internet infrastructure services sends one or more packets of data containing the desired information. The disadvantage of this method is it incurs recurring fees from the ISP and may add a level of complexity and cost to the remote device that makes it impractical.
Still further technique is the use of the features of a commercial telephone service known as Automatic Number Identification (ANI) commonly referred to as Caller ID in conjunction with the suitable process algorithms wherein it is possible to economically transfer data to and from a remote location without requiring either a permanent connection or completing a call through the switched telephone system that will incur any per unit charges.
When a person or device causes a telephone call to be placed to a specific telephone number the telephone company's (telco) ANI system encodes the unique originating telephone number and a short message identifying the caller on the ring signal that goes to the receiving telephone number. This information may be decoded by any number of commercial “Caller ID” devices and presented at the receiving location on a visual display or as data that can be interpreted and processed by a computer.
Historically this Caller ID information has been used to allow a person or machine at the receiving location to identify the calling location before answering the call. This information is typically used to determine if the call should be accepted; whether or not the caller is authorized to connect to a specific computer; retrieve customer account information prior to answering the call; or to automatically route inbound calls to a particular phone extension. It is common practice in many private residences to use this feature to effectively screen incoming calls and to decide whether or not to answer the telephone based on the identity or location of the caller. However, this technique has not been used to transfer data without the completion of a telephone call.
Still further, there is some prior art which makes use of the conventional Automatic Number Identification (ANI, also commonly called CALLER ID) feature of a commercial telephone service to convey data between two locations using coding/decoding techniques and without the need for the completion of a telephone call between the two stations. Ayoub et al. (EP 0,944,229) and Savery et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,085,097) each refers to the broad concept of communicating information between two stations without the need for the completion of a telephone call. However, each shows the use of a multitude of telephone lines, one line being assigned to one particular state or condition. Thus, if 10,000 bits of information is to be conveyed, the system and technique in each publication requires 10,000 lines. Furthermore, EP '229 discloses an alternative scheme of generating different tones (length or duration) to represent different bits of information. Another patent, Ayoub et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,477,363) discloses substantially the same as EP '229. Savery (EP 0,963,088) discloses a network where a sending device converts the information into a length of time of ringing and causes the receiver (at another location) to ring for that length of time. The receiver converts the length of the ringing back to the information sent. In all these references, either a multitude of lines, each uniquely assigned to a particular bit of information, or an information bit-to-tone conversion system is needed. Our system and technique does not require such an arrangement. In other words, the number of digital bits of information transmitted and received, and the number of telephone lines available to transmit and receive the bits do not require a one-to-one correspondence, i.e. they are independent of each other.
While each of these systems is useful, they are burdened by several significant disadvantages: First, they fail to minimize the expenses of telephone toll charges when transmitting information regarding the trash receptacles via a telephone line. This charge may be quite expensive, in light of the fact that some systems maintain a multitude of trash containers. Second, they do not allow users to measure the amount of power supply left in the transmitting means. If the power supply runs out, the waste disposal detection system would be rendered useless. Third, the references do not disclose a way to conserve energy and, thus, allow one to save on more expenses. And, since these references fail to conserve energy, they are not optimally environmentally friendly. Fourth, the references do not disclose a means to verify that the measurements of the waste disposal container are valid, thereby preventing false readings which may also result in unnecessary charges in emptying a container that is not completely full.